HARTFORD -- The state Senate on Tuesday unanimously approved legislation aimed at curtailing campus sexual assaults, requiring public and private colleges and universities to campaign against intimate-partner violence and stalking.

The bill, which heads to the governor, requires institutions to permit anonymous reporting of assaults, promote bystander intervention, establish resource teams to review policies and create links with local crisis centers.

"As a parent and someone whose wife spent years working with victims of sexual assault, the governor has been an outspoken advocate of sexual assault prevention and response procedures," Hernandez said.

Senate Minority Leader John McKinney, R-Fairfield, said it took a group of courageous women -- students and alumni at the University of Connecticut who filed a class-action suit last fall -- to underscore the problem of sexual assault and its "confusions," which in the past have made others afraid to come forward.

"We saw that at our state's flagship university," McKinney said.

With two daughters in high school, McKinney said, he's concerned about even touring UConn, where a section of the Storrs campus is nicknamed "The Rape Trail."

"We need to do something about changing the culture," McKinney said. "There is a lot more that needs to be done, but it needs to be done by faculty, students and staff together. Until we change that culture, until we have those young men understand that sexual assault and date rape is unacceptable, we'll have young women going through that suffering."

Gloria Allred, the nationally known lawyer representing the UConn women in their lawsuit over federal Title IX equal-rights protections, said after the Senate vote that she and her clients "are very gratified" the bill was approved.

"The new legislation was initiated in response to the lawsuit that we filed on behalf of a number of female students (both current and former) who allege that they were raped and/or sexually assaulted, and that they felt that the university violated their rights," Allred said in an email. "As a direct result of their courage and their testimony at the legislative hearings describing the problems that exist at the University of Connecticut, the Legislature identified areas where the laws can and should be strengthened. We believe that this legislative effort should be commended and that the governor should sign the bill into law. We hope that Connecticut's leadership will prompt other states to pass laws that will protect women from sexual assaults and rapes on college campuses. This is a national problem which deserves attention in every state in our country."

"We have too many sexual assaults," he said. The bill "provides coordinated response and collaboration. There's an impact on the person who commits that sexual assault, too, because he knows he's created harm in that process."

During a news conference in the Legislative Office Building, Dickenman led a moment of silence for Maren Sanchez, who was slain, allegedly by an acquaintance, Friday at Jonathan Law High School in Milford.

Dickenman, a founding member of Interval House's Men Make a Difference, Men Against Domestic Violence program, said nationally, one in four women will experience domestic violence.

"When it comes to high school and college women, one in three will have that unfortunate experience," he said, noting CCSU athletes, particularly members of the basketball team, volunteer at Interval House.

Domestic violence is the No. 1 reason for emergency room admissions across the country, Jepsen said.

"It's part of an ongoing cycle that frequently begins in childhood because it's very clearly documented that children who are exposed to domestic violence are far more likely to partake in it themselves," he said. "So it's incumbent on us to try to break that cycle.

"One of the ways you break that cycle is address it where is begins, and it can frequently happen in high school in dating relationships," he said. "So it's not going to happen until we confront it directly; until young men and women sit down and have frank and open discussions about this important discussion."

Interval House, the state's largest domestic violence organization, along with Hartford Hospital, launched the campaign, aimed showing the link between teen-dating abuse and violence, and adult domestic violence.

Rep. Mae Flexer, D-Danielson, who in recent years has chaired a task force on domestic violence, said comprehensive measures have been approved to change the perception of domestic violence.

"So the question isn't, `Why does she stay with him; why does she put up with that?' But instead, the question is, `Why does he think he can treat her this way?' " she said.

Flexer called the Senate bill, which was unanimously approved in the House, the nation's farthest-reaching measure for dealing with intimate-partner violence on campus.

"We're also putting together a very comprehensive bill to add teen-dating violence to our state's bullying statutes, and our Safe Schools Climate Code as well, as we're awaiting action on those measures in the House and Senate," Flexer said.